THE BEET: VOLUME 16; WEEK 21

FULL SHARE & GREEN HALF SHARE

Pick up today: 5pm - 7:30pm at PS 56 on the corner of Gates and Downing

Of CSA Note!

  • As the summer and fall season winds down, it's time for the winter share! Sign up HERE to receive four shares over the course of the winter of delicious greens, storage vegetables, fruits, and other treats. Pickup is on Saturdays in Clinton Hill; find out more HERE and in Ted's letter below. 
  • We've just finalized our survey about the 2017 season, and we'd love for all members to speak up and share their thoughts on our CSA. We take all responses into consideration when planning for upcoming seasons, so it's vital that you contribute your feelings (good, bad, and otherwise) about this year's share. Take the survey online HERE. 
  • We'll have a little Halloween potluck gathering at tonight's pickup. There'll be snacks, activities, and kids (and adults!) are encouraged to come in costume :)

This Week's Share

  • Pie Pumpkins 
  • Winter Squashes
  • Fennel
  • Red and Yellow Onions
  • Chiles
  • Pepper or Eggplant
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Arugula or Swiss Chard
  • Romaine Lettuce
  • Tatsoi (aka Chinese Spinach)

News from Windflower Farm

Your winter share signup form is available here: https://windflowerfarm.wufoo.com/forms/m1xr27rk05nzoa8/.

We hope you decide to join us! The first winter share will arrive on Saturday, November 18thgiving you plenty of time to clean out your refrigerator. The share is delivered on four Saturdays during the winter, and includes fresh organic greens from our greenhouses, local pears and apples, our own organic storage vegetables, and a variety of little treats, including the Borden’s cider, and our own homemade jam and popcorn. The signup form contains more detailed information.

Fall is a time of transition here. As the farm season winds down, our staff is moving on. As rural people do, the people who work with us have built their lives around the seasons. Sara, a jack-of-all-trades at the farm, is on to run her family’s balsam wreath business. Once that work comes to an end, she’ll work with her brothers in their maple “sugarbush.” In between, she makes time to work on her pottery. Andrea, our membership coordinator, will wrap up the season making herbal teas and hawking vegetables in Saratoga Springs for a friend’s farm. After the New Year, she’ll head down to Laguna Prieta, Mexico to spend some of the winter at the home of co-workers, the Medinas. Sara and Andrea will both help with our winter share when their schedules permit. The Medinas, who have been with us for ten years, will visit family throughout the United States during the month of November, and then will head to Mexico for the winter. They have family with whom to reconnect there, and onion and cabbage and “Three Sisters” crops to tend. We’ll see them back here in April.

Adam, my nephew, is hitching his tiny house to a borrowed Ford F350 and heading west. He and his wife and child are relocating to Boulder, Colorado. Don, our delivery truck driver, will drive a school bus during the winter and spring, and spend any spare time painting, which is his first love. Naomi, who works with Don on the truck, will turn her attention to her move into a new house just a couple of miles from here where she’ll do some nesting and work on art projects of her own during the winter. We’ll see them back here in June. Victoria, Naomi’s sister and our distribution coordinator, left us three weeks ago and, on Friday, gave birth to her third boy. Mom and baby are healthy. I think that daycare is already in place for next season. Salvador and Candelaria, who live in the town next door, will slow down a little. But we’ll see them for a week every month as we work together to prepare winter shares. Jan and I know how fortunate we are that this creative and hard-working group of people come back to us each year.

As for what my family and I will do now – we’ll slow down, too. Several farm projects require our attention before spring, but we’ll ignore them for a little while. We are hoping to spend a couple of weeks away in late November, although we are not sure where.

The peak fall foliage reminds us that, this crazy-warm weather notwithstanding, winter is coming, and it’s already past time to squirrel away storage vegetables and grains and to put up firewood. This week, we’ll finish planting the German white garlic and begin to plant next year’s onions. We’ll cover strawberries and winter greens and finish seeding down rye. We’ll harvest and bag the last of our carrots and potatoes. And we’ll fetch a bean thresher from a friend – it’s a stationary machine for processing the Black Turtle Beans that we’ve grown for the winter share. Our end-of-season project list is long, but we are checking items off at a good pace.

Your last share of the season will be delivered next week. We hope you have enjoyed your experience. We’ll send out a survey – please take a few minutes to tell us what you think.

Have a great week, Ted

Lettuce Fight Wasted Food Together

A Note from New York State's Department of Conservation:

For centuries food has served as more than just a source of survival. Whether it be the morning bagel and coffee shared amongst coworkers, the half gallon of ice cream devoured during times of emotional distress or the smorgasbord of food laid upon the table during a potluck with friends, food remains at the epicenter of our lives. Despite this shared dependency and yet unique relationship we each hold with food, U.S. households waste 76 billion pounds, or 238 pounds of food per person annually equating to a cost of $450 per person (ReFED Report). Say hello to the food waste revolution. There are small changes that can make lasting impacts to the amount of food wasted in your household and save you money along the way.

  • Shop wisely by planning meals and following a shopping list. 
  • Plan portions appropriately and save leftovers for meals throughout the week.
  • Properly store or freeze food items to prevent them from spoiling.

Visit Save the Food, a national campaign to reduce wasted food from households, to learn more about cooking with food you might otherwise waste, proper food storage and so much more.

What can YOU do?

  • Implement small changes to reduce wasted food in your household
  • Spread the word on wasted food using the media toolkit provided by Save The Food campaign
  • Join the NYS Food Recovery Campaign
  • Attend the 4th Annual Organics Summit, March 27th – 28th, 2018 in Poughkeepsie NY

UPCOMING EVENTS

Veronica